Flying out Monday

Trisha and myself are in the cities, spending the last two days with each other before my flight leaves Monday. These last number of days of preparation have been laced with anxiousness for both of us. Our worlds have been turned on their heads. For Trisha, she has to move to the cities by herself in May, where she'll continue her education in a foreign world. The only people she knows are my brother, and her father (they have just recently been connecting for real for the first time!) I'm convinced that God is going to do a tremendous work in her life, but that doesn't mean it's going to be an easy ride.

I said my goodbyes to the wonderful people up in Duluth. When my section of the Prayer Walk is over I'll be moving into the cities with my beautiful wife. Then what's going to happen? Where is God going to bring us next? I don't have a single idea, but what I do know is that wherever He guides us, it's going to be filled with excitement and adventure.

So these are the two feelings that have been with me, anxiousness and thrill. The anxiety comes from not knowing what's around the corner, and the thrill comes from loving every minute of the adventures of life. In the Song of Solomon God compares Himself to a stag that is gallivanting over the mountains, and He is calling His bride (His followers) to come with Him! He wants us to experience the thrill of recklessly following Him with abandon (yeah, yeah, while never leaving behind wisdom :-)

I think in order for Him to truly hold the reigns of our lives that we need to let go. It's so easy to take them up out of fear. It's so easy to control our futures by laying out a long term 5, 10, 15, and 20 year plan that is filled with our goals, ambitions, and desires. What's hard to do, is during our petitions and requests (which are generally a good idea) to keep our ear next to His lips in order to hear His plans for us. What is He saying? Where is He leading? What vision does He have for us? Then, in my experience, the hardest part of all comes next; and that's to lay down our vision in order to fully embrace His. After all, His ways aren't always our ways (this has been more true than not with me).

It's hard, very hard, to obey; but it's worth every ounce of blood, tears, and sweat, because the affiliated joy that comes on the heels of obedience is simply surreal.